Butter

Taken at Cleveland's West Side Market -- Awesome place

I will begin by giving away the premise of todays post. I LOVE BUTTER. Just after the magic ingredient Salt, it is, for me, essential. When I was a kid my brother Jack, who was a strong 15 year old, used to pin me (who stood 4'5" and weighed 80 lbs. wet) and tickle me relentlessly. He was and is a good brother but he did occasionally abuse his strength. Plus, I trusted him implicitly and would bite at every joke he played on me.

Jack's one Achille's Heel is butter, he only likes it very sparingly and always ON something (Potatoes, etc). So, when he would push me past my point I would sometimes go into the kitchen, hack off a huge piece of butter and proceed to put the entire piece in my mouth in front of him and eat it. This would reduce him to nothing and he would leave, gagging the entire time.

Another butter related story from my childhood..... Both my parents worked from just after my birth so once I was going to school I would come home to an empty house everyday. Sometimes, while watching cartoons or Ultra Man or Astro Boy I would make myself a bowl of butter frosting and eat the entire thing before anyone got home.

In Cleveland, specifically Lakewood, my hometown, there are TWO different pizza parlors where one can order a Butter Cheese pizza. What's on a Butter Cheese pizza, well, cheese and butter instead of sauce. Everytime I get home I have to eat a large by myself. In the days when smoking was allowed in restaurants I would go there and see people eating butter cheese pizza and smoking. Hearty people those Clevelanders.

Lastly, to my friend Bob and Patti's two excellent kids Matt and Shannon I am lovingly known as, you guessed it, Uncle Butter. How DID I get that nickname?